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does anyony know what happened to beta 1 for MDK 10??

Yes its OT...

"I couldn't wait to update my MandrakeClub subscription and start leeching the USB-key version of MandrakeMove."

As much as I may sympathize with the author's feelings about Mandrakemove and linux in general, he's TOTALLY out of line here to expect to download this version for free (which comes with its own USB key when purchased) and then whine when he can't get it to work with some off the shelf piece of hardware.

Mandrake was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy last I read. I'm not crazy about their distribution myself, but this is no way to support them if you do like them.

does anyony know what happened to beta 1 for MDK 10??
Mandrake's wiki is one of the best place to find infos about them. Here you are :
http://qa.mandrakesoft.com/twiki/bin/view/Main/Mandrake10

For the moment, there is no beta, nor alpha, nor pre-release. There is Cooker, the community behind Mandrake as well as its experimental distro (equivalent of debian's SID distro).
More info here :
http://qa.mandrakesoft.com/twiki/bin/view/Main/CookerHowTo

"Again, I got no where because I don't see how I can possibly do that not knowing the format of the MandrakeMove files. What seems to be the reoccurring theme here? DOCUMENTATION!!!"

Hello, it coems with PDF and HTML documentation for all the stuff you mentioned and if you ordered it online you will get printed documentation too.

Also you do not need to buy a USB key to get the boxed set. You can buy the $20 one without a USB key. That's what I did, since I already have a 128 MB key.

"Mandrake was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy last I read. I'm not crazy about their distribution myself, but this is no way to support them if you do like them."

I guess that you haven't read recently. Things are improving and they should be out of reorganizing their debt and avoiding bankruptcy.

But that doesn't mean they are in the clear nor profitable yet. Re-organization of debt is a small step in the long way MDK has to go.

Most of usb key are crapy and aren't compatible with the usb standard for usb drive. That's why they come with there own driver for windows to circunvent hardware bugs...

The best brand seems to be iomega and PQI.

True, but they are not "teetering on the edge of bankruptcy" either. It takes a while for any company to become profitable. Especially one that gives away their product for free.

The Fujifilm XD ones are proper USB mass storage devices. The XD cards are also very small (postage stamp sized), so they look pretty nice in addition to working well with Linux.

Here's a pic:
http://search.kelkoo.co.uk/sitesearch/go.jsp?offerId=2062uk1340x115...

They are about $40 for the drive, and 128mb card runs around $60-80, depending on who makes it.

The author should have brought a hardware compatability list with him when he went shopping. For most manufacturers, Linux is not a Tier 1 supported operating system, it just works if you are lucky, unfortunately.

I'm using a KVM switch since space is at a premium for me. It seems that live cd distros have a hard time configuring X in those conditions : both MandrakeMove and Damn Small Linux stay in command line mode, complaining about an unknown monitor; Knoppix does better but runs at a minimum resolution. The mouse and the keyboard work fine.

Is there a way to install mandrake move like how knoppix has a hdinstall command? It works smoothly on my machine but I can't get 9.2 to work that smoothly so I'm stuck in windows until there is a easier solution.

Your problem is not the distribution. It is the Cruzer flash drive. It has problems with ALL distributions. They did not properly implement the standards for the drive. The Cruzer even chokes somewhat on Windows 2000.

I got one for Christmas, and it repeatedly brought down most of my systems, especially my MDK one since it tried to supermount it. After a week of messing with it, I returned it to the store and picked up a PNY one which implements the standard properly.

I've had no problems since then.

Send a letter of complaint to SanDisk about this issue. If you search google, you'll see TONS of people with the same problem.

I've tried it on three computers and all three just keep flashing the screen off and on and never gets to the desktop.

Two have ATI and one has an old S3/

Kernel panic because of the insertion of a USB device?

Can you really induce a kernel panic on a Mandrake Linux box by plugging a USB key into it?

Does this affect all Linux kernels? and if so, it seems to be a pretty bad flaw - surely the assumption should be that idiots can and will plug all manner of things into the USB ports - including things that arent even meant to be plugged there.

It never ceases to amaze me how someone can make a statement like "Windows Hell" and then go on to write a review about what sounded like "Linux Hell" and have the balls to call it a great product...

I sure don't remember ever having Windows XP crash from a USB drive! And wireless on XP is a no-brainer, and it just got even better with XP SP2!

At the end of the day what is this guy going to be able to accomplish, from a true BUSINESS viewpoint, that he couldn't have accomplished with his existing Windows box? In fact, as his manager I would have been really pissed at his complete waste of company time and resources! Nothing would be my guess, especially if he can't even get on the Internet!!!

LOL

The Fujifilm XD ones are proper USB mass storage devices. The XD cards are also very small (postage stamp sized), so they look pretty nice in addition to working well with Linux.

I am curious as to what happens when you pull the memory card out of the drive after you mount it? I have a panasonic drive that uses the SD media. I have used it on my Mac and my windows laptop but have not tried it on linux yet. I will argree this type of media is nice to have.

There is a latch that you have to slide out to remove the card. It slides towards the computer (when the thing is inserted in a usb slot), so you can't open the memory card slot when the drive is plugged in. Pretty smart, actually.

I have said it before, and I will say it again -- "You get what you pay for!" You want to buy the cheap stuff -- Have fun later when it doesn't work the way it should. USB keys/drives are the same as any other peice of computer hardware -- pay a bit more, and get something that's been tested on more than one system.

I agree with you, to a point. More like, "don't expect it to much beyond what it claims." Yes, it works in Windows because it was probably tested to work there, but after that, you're really lucky if it "happens" to work in Linux.

'I sure don't remember ever having Windows XP crash from a USB drive! And wireless on XP is a no-brainer, and it just got even better with XP SP2!'

I'm doing a college course at the moment and just about everyone in my class has a USB drive. I've seen multiple crashes and errors on the college's Windows 2000 systems. I've never seen a USB drive that works perfectly on Windows 2000 and there are still problems with XP.

Quite often my drive will not be recognised when I insert it, and if I remove and reinsert it too quickly Windows restarts. Worst of all, if I leave the USB drive in the machine when it's restarting the data becomes corrupted and it has to be reformatted.

I've gone back to floppies for transporting small files, the USB drive is only used when I'm dealing with files over 1.4Mb.

Just for the record, since I have received some critism on this article, I want to make a few statements.

First of all, I did not "steal" or "unfairly" obtain this version of MandrakeMove. I upgraded my membership to "silver" so that I could have the promised priviledge of downloading the usb-key version of this distribution. I have already purchased Mandrake 9.2 and was simply testing out MandrakeMove to see what it was all about and introduce the possiblity of using it at work (as a previous reviewer had done at school).

It is not unreasonable to think that other USB keys should work. Again, I don't even think that Mandrake should necessarily support them, but rather just list those reported by the community as causing problems. Sure, I purchased cheap hardware, but this was not an investment which was going to help me much, so I didn't want to pour a lot of money into it.

Finally, I wrote this review to detail what MandrakeMove could not do, I realize that what it does do is quite amazing. I am pushing the envelope and I would like to see where Mandrake can take it. I will tell you that non-linux users will be much more critical than I was. I understand this is a first release and for that I applaud Mandrake.

hi, im new to linux in general (using windows/mac os mostly) and heard about mandrakemove. i liked the idea and decided to check it out to see if it would be a good fit for me. i downloaded the free version iso and put it on cdr. i decided to try my "old" toshiba satellite 1800 (think i bought it in 2000~) changed the boot priority and away i went. started up no problems (~screen resol. set to 800x600~) changed the resolution and checked out the platform. i definatley liked what i saw. connecting to internet was no problem (everything seemed to be configured properly). i would love to see this idea undergo further development and after trying out the free version i am now ordering a boxed version, as well as opening myself to "other" linux os's.
one con for this product: my laptop is a lame celeron800 with 256soDIMM and a 24x? cd drive. i think they reccomend 32x? anyhow, i felt my system was limiting the power of this cool little os (but hinestly it wasnt that bad). all in all i like what i see and i will now seek to support linux where it applies usefully to me.

Does your employer know that you insult Windows user on Web sites?

I guess this shows that not all MS shills go through great lengths to hide their true nature. Kudos for your chutzpah, I hope it was worth it!

Everyone, i am sorry for the post above. I just got annoyed by author calling windows hell when this article was not related to windows at all. I know being a professional you should not get sentimental and react to it but i just reacted. I hope you guys don't make that topic any further.

The post above only represents my views and doesn't in any way are associated to Microsoft.

I lost control of myself and did a knee jerk reaction.

It is a personal request to everyone that please don't talk about my post (TrollKilla (IP: ---.microsoft.com)) any further...i sincerely apologize for that.

And a personal request to osnews, if they can get it removed for me.

Thanks
Manav

Sorry, but I don't take insults coming from Anonymous posters seriously. I'm pretty sure that the MS employee stepped out of line, even if he was on his lunch break. In fact, Manav's reply (if genuine) seems to corroborate this. So does attbi.com know that you're sullying their good name with your silly (and misguided) comeback?

I do agree though, that OSNews should just remove the post. I mean, we're just talking here, there's no sense in the poor guy being in trouble with his employer for a little flame, however un-PC it might have been.

Peace.

Don't worry, I have already taken the liberty of reporting it to abuse@microsoft.com in case anyone tries to delete it. I totally agree with you, so need to attempt to flame me. And no one takes insults seriously from Candians.

" And no one takes insults seriously from Candians. "

*shakes fist widly at screen

Curse you americans!

:)

whoops

*wildly

It's OK. Probably the humorous effect was amplified by my typo, maybe at my expense. Dern candians.

Guys, I am thankful to you for removing that post. Its sad for me that someone reported to abuse at microsoft. I guess he mistaken me, i sent a flame post (by the name trollkill) only for the author of the article because i got annoyed at the word windows hell and did a knee jerk reaction, though i later apologized for it too.

Well anyways tons of thanks to osnews.com for helping me. I owe you guys. You guys are great.

Just as a thought, shouldn't we all not make fun of an OS (mostly we do of windows) without any reason. I am planning to write a linux kernel vs windows kernel architecture comparison and somehow i strongly feel that NT/2000/XP has a better architecture. Lets see if i could spend enough time studying linux architecture for that and prove my point.

Hi all...

Just wanted to mention that I have a flash card reader that barely works under windows, in spite of being the target platform, and if connected on boot, makes the boot process hang. Works sometimes if you plug it in afterward, but kills the boot.

Always buy quality USB components!

Dear Manav: it depends what you want to compare, really, if you choose to look at the Linux and NT kernels. To a great extent, it depends what result you actually want to return as well. The old Micro/Monolithic kernel debate has been done to death, and while counter to early 90's wisdom, the Linux kernel bucks the trend for monolithic kernels.

In terms of final results, you need only look at the uptime of Linux systems and the fewer security issues than the NT kernel for the most part to judge it. At the same time, it depends what you want it for.

Personally, I think the Server 2003 kernel looks very good and solid, and that the NT codebase, with that product has finally achieved parity with the Linux kernel in terms of stability and security.

Windows systems still require more resources in general, however, and that is just life. Taking a look at servers, Apache serves more pages, faster and to more users than IIS does under Server 2003. That's why Microsoft shops have, for the past five years, been splitting their mail, file, printer and web servers into separate boxes. Then adding fallover systems for those (due to stability, which server 2003 will hopefully correct) and the server count gets large. With per server per user licensing, this is the main reason why Windows deployments have cost companies so much money.

Anyway, I'm rambling. The question of whether making a stable product is a good idea based on the fact that it will halve client licenses in many cases is something Microsoft managment are, I guess, still chewing over.

Personally, I think the Server 2003 kernel looks very good and solid, and that the NT codebase, with that product has finally achieved parity with the Linux kernel in terms of stability and security.

Aha, and where have you seen that architecture?
Have you seen the sources (wow, where can i download them ), or is it just one of those nice components-charts you're talking about? Some time ago there such a chart for longhorn was published,too.. but what can you really learn from them?

It's funny how you said you were using MandrakeMove to get yourself out of Windows hell. If you ask me from reading your article, the amount of time and energy you spent trying to get Mandrake working sure sounds like you jumped from Windows hell to Linux hell. Was it really worth it?

I've tried MandrakeMove as well as Knoppix and I have to say I much prefer Knoppix. It comes with much more useful software and it ran much better on my hardware. Maybe you should give it a whirl.

Only because I was not specific enough in my article and people seem to be hounding on it, let me expand upon my "windows hell" statement.

To me, using windows is hell. No one else is required to think that, it is just my opinion. I have not used any time at work to play with MandrakeMove. I am extremely busy at work and I simply don't have a spare minute to play with something like this, nor would I. It was all done on my own time. However, if I was able to run a live version of Linux, I could be more productive at work since I am much more comfortable in Linux.

I already have a perfect Linux distribution at home, Linux Mandrake 9.1 with an upgraded Mandrake 9.2 kernel and a wireless card. All of it was super easy to setup. I was simply looking to expand my horizons with a bootable live CD. Windows can't even run in this fashion, so it is no use in even talking about Windows when comparing it to my article. That comparison would be better off left to a desktop distribution review.

Unfortunately, it looks like MandrakeMove might be a little bit too "iffy" to try at work and not waste time right now. Knoppix might work better, but then again, it might have issues as well.

I did eventually buy a different USB drive, it was not a big deal. I even ended up getting a better deal for the price. (Lexar jumpdrive pro 2.0, works like a charm). I am trying to play devils advocate, reflected what a person might say if they tried MandrakeMove as a "non-geek" distro like Mandrake claims. Reviews such as this help Mandrake create better products. I am not bitching about Linux in general, I already love Linux and again, I have a Linux that works for me, much better than windows in my opinion (though you are free to disagree and not bash me).

Side note: I find that many of the responses on this site are quite hostile. It is unfortunate I think because I never said that you couldn't disagree with me. People may be inclined to read the comments more often if you just take a breather and put down an appropriate response. Think of it as a courtroom, where if you blast out inflamatory statements you get "overruled."

Knoppix, morphix, bbc, slax, all work on my 3 pcs.. Mandrake move sez I need memory... Oh well...

> I put in a USB flash drive which lead to a kernel panic error.

[...]

> Hit it from all angles until it is so rock solid and only then
> can we can begin comparing it to the linux kernel itself.

It's funny to underline that this is fully plain nonsense.
Journalist complains about a kernel panic (that's a kernel error) and then says that the product must be tested and fixed to be more solid, just like the kernel is.

Using a simpletech 256 usb 2.0 flashdrive ($49 from Sam's club) and a FujiFilm 512meg usb flashdrive got it for $129
Both work flawlessly. Wow i love this MandrakeMove. Firebird is so easy to add instead of Konqueror. Only thing left is more documentation to allow us to remove and replace more complex apps that need symlinks created and are directory location specific. Thanks for a wonderful review
enjoyed it and keep up the good work.

As an Aussie I'll just say "She'll be right, Mate" to all comments about being upside down etc. before I start (mainly because I'm a day ahead of youall anyway).

I've been using Mandrake Move since a couple of days after it became available, and I think it's way ahead of any other OS on the market for the ultimate portable desktop (the concept makes Windows look old-fashioned, doesn't it?) there's a couple of extra programs I'd like but I can always boot in Mepis or Knoppix for them if I really need to.

1. Totally Portable email
My mail server is running IMP using IMAP so no matter where I am I can access all my mail folders etc. via webmail, and if I'm on the home/office network KMail is setup for IMAP and works fine.

2. Portable documents
I setup a directory called shared in my Mankrake 9.2 home directory and a script to copy updated docs back and forth to a shared directory on the USB key.

More Memory
If your hard drive has a Linux swap partition Mandrake Move will use it and give you more headroom.

Folding
I have a Folding directory on the USB key and the Move folds quietly in the background whlie I work.

USB keys
I've found that every USB key that says it works with Linux works fine - and if the docs for the key don't say that it works with Linux - it doesn't. Why should Mandrake need to test all USB keys when the manufacturers tell us what works?

com'on, where the heck do you live?

seriously, Sandisk has been around for a long time, and has shown the world that it is very much willing to give users troubles by not following the standards. I am staying away from it, and fortunately for me, the price isn't competitive either.

mdk 10 beta 1 is coming very soon, is the impression I'm getting ATM. it was mostly waiting on an official mdk kernel 2.6.1, which we now have. so i'd expect it sometime this week.